Retired racer turned ­commentator Martin Brundle’s voice was audibly pained as he spoke of his own brush with fate nearly 20 years ago.

It was six months after Senna’s fatal smash and the sport was still in shock. Remarkably he, too, almost hit a crane.

“My concern is those cranes on track,” he said. “I nearly lost my life against one of them, I just missed it and hit a marshal. I closed my eyes and I thought that was the end.

“The tractors are just too high and you are sitting down low. I’ve been saying this for a long time.

“You are going into the barrier if you go off there. There’s no way of recovering, you are going too fast.

"I spun off under yellows, there was so much spray I couldn’t even see my own steering wheel let alone the yellow flags that day. If one car goes off there’s so much greater chance of another going off in the same place.”

Circumstances were clearly perilous because the race was red flagged twice and the safety car came out three times.

Fading light. Increasing rain. Howling winds. ­Deteriorating conditions. What were officials waiting for – a sign with the word ‘Danger’ to be slapped on the control tower window?

(Image: Getty)

And yet the race director Charlie Whiting and his team are among the most diligent individuals in world sport. Were the pressures of TV scheduling, the fans and the world at large just too ­difficult to resist?

Former F1 racer Anthony Davidson called for an ­official review. He said: “Maybe ­procedures have to be looked at. Perhaps, no diggers or ­vehicles on the track in extreme ­conditions like that.

“It’s inevitable cars will collect in points like that. You shouldn’t have recovery vehicles on the track.”

In the intervening two decades the lessons do not appear to have been learned. Felipe Massa, the last driver seriously hurt in an F1 smash, was fuming.

The Brazilian almost lost his left eye after an errant suspension spring battered his helmet in Hungary five years ago.

“In my opinion, they started the race too early because it was ­undriveable at the beginning and they finished it too late,” he said.

(Image: Mark Thompson)

“I was already screaming on the radio five laps before the safety car came out, that there was too much water on the track.

“But then they took a little bit too long and we saw it was dangerous and we saw a crash.”

Brundle rejected assertions that organisers should have held the race earlier, or even on Saturday, because of a warning of lashing rain and 150mph winds from approaching Typhoon Phanfone.

“It was a wet race situation, not a standing water situation,” he argued. “It was raining, you could have held the race this morning and the same would have happened. It’s not as if he was going down a straight and ­aquaplaned off on a ridiculous amount of water.”

The British star said: “The tractor didn’t come out too quickly. That’s what they do all the time, that’s normal protocol. They have to get the cars off the track for safety.

“If the car was left sitting there and someone had gone off they would have hit the car. And there were double yellow flags, with those you are supposed to have a big lift.” Sauber racer Adrian Sutil said the safety car could have come out earlier after his smash.

Double yellow flags had been waved – which indicate great danger ahead – and the rules say drivers must slow down enough to be prepared to stop.

German Sutil said: “I aquaplaned on this corner, it was tricky, visibility was less and less. And one lap later, Jules came around and had the same spin and that was it.

“More or less the same crash, but the outcome was a bit different.

“Everyone knows this is one of the trickiest corners, when it’s getting late and the rain increases. With an ­accident there you should probably think about a safety car.” It was reported that circuit owners Honda were twice asked by ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA if the race start could be brought forward four hours to 11am local time because of the approaching typhoon.

“We were not asked about our opinion,” added Sutil.

“It would have been quite easy to make the race a bit earlier, but it was not in my hands.”

There are also claims that poor Bianchi may not have slowed as much as he might.